Pity Hitler didn't reach for this kind of rainbow...http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Rainbow_flag_and_blue_skies.jpg/240px-Rainbow_flag_and_blue_skies.jpg
― Meine Damen und Herren, ein grosse sh*tstorm! (snoball), Thursday, 11 July 2013 09:41 (eleven years ago) link
perhaps, broadly, this isn't a crisis. just the usual showboating language designed to score points in the navel-gazing world of parliamentary politics. a few votes won and lost and a few soundbites, the welfare state never to be dismantled but chipped away at here and there, gradually replaced with quasi-private institutions that do the job roughly as efficiently as the state. the public bitching and whining and mean-spiritedness just the default attitude for a section of the public, and a bunch of radio/tv/internet outlets designed to cater to that attitude in the name of feeling communal and being entertained. the marginalized never pushed far out enough to feel truly resentful or recognize an injustice. no end times. a bunch of us angsty liberals fretting about how beastly people can be then turning the TV off and slapping ourselves on the back.
― the SI unit of ignorance (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 11 July 2013 09:43 (eleven years ago) link
^ <high five>
― MILLIONAIRE KING OF RAPPERS! (Bananaman Begins), Thursday, 11 July 2013 09:48 (eleven years ago) link
it feels worse though, though, though that may be a question of perception. like thatcher's spawn coming of age (or major's spawn, or even blair's).
― Puff Daddy, whoever the fuck you are. I am dissapoint. (stevie), Thursday, 11 July 2013 09:48 (eleven years ago) link
The quasi-private institutions are never as effective as the public sector, and furthermore bounce all FoI requests because they're 'commercially sensitive'. I want accountability from the government of the day and from corporations much more than I want it from any individual victim of socio-economic conditions. Also, if a person's private insurance policy for whatever reason required some kind of forced labour component to collect, consumer rights programmes run by the BBC would be down their throats in an instant.
― aldi young dudes (suzy), Thursday, 11 July 2013 09:50 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nick-hewer-margaret-mountford-investigate-2043331#ixzz2YgeLtLln
maybe this show isn't as terrible as it seems?
― Puff Daddy, whoever the fuck you are. I am dissapoint. (stevie), Thursday, 11 July 2013 10:24 (eleven years ago) link
although maybe not
Nick also takes a hard line with one father called Chris, suggesting he needs to buck up his ideas and make a few more sacrifices.“One chap wouldn’t work away during the week and return at weekends because, being a modern father, he said, ‘I want to see my children’."Fathers are busy changing nappies now, which is something I never did. In my day, quite a lot of people worked away."I did it. I worked in London and the family were in the country.”
“One chap wouldn’t work away during the week and return at weekends because, being a modern father, he said, ‘I want to see my children’.
"Fathers are busy changing nappies now, which is something I never did. In my day, quite a lot of people worked away.
"I did it. I worked in London and the family were in the country.”
― Puff Daddy, whoever the fuck you are. I am dissapoint. (stevie), Thursday, 11 July 2013 10:27 (eleven years ago) link
Really, if the BBC adore the free market so much they should arrange to be privatised, and live by its rules.
Coming soon on BBC1: Concentration Campwatch.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Thursday, 11 July 2013 11:28 (eleven years ago) link
that wouldnt surprise me at all marcello
the only difference between the bbc and the khmer rouge is that the latter were at least nominally committed so some idea of solidarity -- the bbc are just rabid neoliberal wolves
― the most promising US ilxor has thrown the TOWEL IN (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Thursday, 11 July 2013 11:40 (eleven years ago) link
ahahaha how am I the one who got trenchant social commentaried
― reet pish (imago), Thursday, 11 July 2013 11:43 (eleven years ago) link
gonna do the honours myself
― reet pish (imago), Thursday, 11 July 2013 11:44 (eleven years ago) link
...for fear of being struck by another's trenchant social commentary
― Meine Damen und Herren, ein grosse sh*tstorm! (snoball), Thursday, 11 July 2013 11:48 (eleven years ago) link
snobes ✓
― the most promising US ilxor has thrown the TOWEL IN (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Thursday, 11 July 2013 11:50 (eleven years ago) link
And so?
― Mark G, Friday, 12 July 2013 05:54 (eleven years ago) link
About as grotesque as you might expect. Old rich people who've never needed to claim touring the system, 'hardworking taxpayers' eg. single people on £16k a year judging people with children. Obviously, the made-redundant dad applying for 10 jobs a day is seen more favourably than the heavy-set woman with the same amount of kids and pets (apparently you shouldn't have pets or a telly if you're not working). Worst bit: dimwit rail-thin whinging woman who couldn't stop taking inventory of chubby woman's possessions and pets as if it proved anything, standing beside the chubby woman in the supermarket insisting she didn't buy a whole chicken because 'you should get the fillets' and who could not be persuaded to shut the fuck up about it. Chubby woman finally told the crew to stop filming; rail-thin woman got all smirky when her charge bought her a drink in the pub she visits one night a week - all over her skull of a face, that weird, greedy, snide expression you see in workplace/schoolyard bullies. I'd have bought a pint just so I could've chucked it over her. She actually asked the chubby mum if she could cut back her own food budget because her kids were getting free lunches at school and thus the undeserving bastards were getting an outrageous TWO hot meals a day. Petty bitch.
Guy on incapacity benefit who'd been through a 20-year wringer of unemployment, intermittent homelessness, relationship breakdown etc was managing to keep his two little girls on an even keel, described himself as a 'homemaker'. Twice, the mothers of his children abandoned them to him, giving him sole or main custody. He put every ounce of energy he had into running his home, but had trouble walking more than a hundred metres without having to rest. In between school runs he spent most of his time bargain-hunting for decent food (and was the best shopper/from-scratch cook of the claimants). He'd have about £6800 a year from his IB and child benefit to feed, clothe and keep the heat on for a family of three; the rest of his £15k/year benefit bill went straight to a landlord. It's disgusting.
Heads up: a taxpayer on £25k/year is only contributing about £60 of their tax bill towards other people's JSA, so these shitty little martinets who think they can shout the odds because they're hardworking serfs on £16k/year can basically STFU. Since they're paying tax on only £7k of that, JSA claimants are really only into them for about £40/year. Perspective, much?
― aldi young dudes (suzy), Friday, 12 July 2013 08:23 (eleven years ago) link
i wish your review could get to a wider audience than just us, suzy - much appreciated
― Puff Daddy, whoever the fuck you are. I am dissapoint. (stevie), Friday, 12 July 2013 08:54 (eleven years ago) link
yep
― imago, Friday, 12 July 2013 08:57 (eleven years ago) link
Yes, it's a great review. I can't really blame people on low incomes for being angry that their quality of life is no better than standard the state regards as the bare minimum for survival. That anger needs to be directed in the right place though. The divide and rule approach to the less-well-off is horribly effective.
― Inte Regina Lund eller nån, mitt namn är (ShariVari), Friday, 12 July 2013 09:00 (eleven years ago) link
One thing I had hoped people would have learnt from the last recession was the fact that anyone can become unemployed. It has nothing to do with how hard you worked at your last job. I've been unemployed and I've been on 13 week schemes in rooms full of people from all kinds of backgrounds and experiences, people who thought they'd never be made unemployed, but they were. I would have thought that every adult in this country in the last ten years would either have been unemployed themselves at some time, or known someone who was, and consequently known that unemployed people are not lazy or workshy, and that the image of the 'benefit cheat' is by and large a myth. But it's a lesson that seems to be getting ignored in some kind of rush to be a judgemental right wing armchair shitbag.And for the record, I've never met a single person who fits the media stereotype of the 'dole scrounger'. Everyone I've met who's been unemployed has wanted to work, wanted to get a job, wanted to get off JSA.
― Meine Damen und Herren, ein grosse sh*tstorm! (snoball), Friday, 12 July 2013 09:02 (eleven years ago) link
Idea for a follow-up programme: license fee payers question Mountford and Hewer about how much they were paid to appear on that 'documentary' and what they've spent the money on.
― Meine Damen und Herren, ein grosse sh*tstorm! (snoball), Friday, 12 July 2013 09:12 (eleven years ago) link
Can't add to or improve what Suzy said above. Snoball also OTM. Next on BBC1: two overpaid presenters try to justify why they should be paid public money for wagging their entitled fingers at people who are paid public money.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 12 July 2013 09:14 (eleven years ago) link
I would suspect that the BBC paid St**rt H*ll more money in six months than the single dad on incapacity benefit has received in a decade. Are we going to see a programme explaining the justification for that? (answer: nope)
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 12 July 2013 09:25 (eleven years ago) link
idk ye all seem to be getting great value out of it tbh
― dub job deems (darraghmac), Friday, 12 July 2013 09:26 (eleven years ago) link
Watching the BBC is SKIVING!
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 12 July 2013 09:32 (eleven years ago) link
suzy that review definitely needs to be put up somewhere!
darragh your non sequitur arguments are so fucking basic, as are your ~arch~ ripostes
― lex pretend, Friday, 12 July 2013 09:39 (eleven years ago) link
Can I just point out that this meretricious piece of shit has been running since 2009
― Tommy McTommy (Tom D.), Friday, 12 July 2013 09:44 (eleven years ago) link
^ WOUNDING ^
― MILLIONAIRE KING OF RAPPERS! (Bananaman Begins), Friday, 12 July 2013 09:44 (eleven years ago) link
The food bank worker who told Nick and Margaret that people were begging for bog roll scared the shit out of them, BTW.
That programme needed an informed smartarse who's been on benefits to explain stuff like the above to their allocated hardwhinging ignoramus. I'd volunteer, but if the price of sanity is no direct contact with the Chicken Fillet Ladies of this world, I'll pay it. £40 is the cost of a cheap night out, or taking you and two kids to the cinema. Apparently, despite constant shaming propaganda, there is a stubborn 27 per cent of British people who believe that benefits should be higher and there's probably a correlation between those people and the percentage of people who feel insulted at the use of terms like 'welfare'. I'm sure working people who received child benefit at the same rate as their unemployed neighbours don't figure that in to their assessment of themselves as somehow superior to that neighbour.
There was absolutely fuck-all on telly last night, but before that we were treated to the sight of three nice chefs who get it intervening to help working poor and disabled people manage their food budgets, which were often £2/day per head after all the other bills went out. It was a much more compassionate programme. The chefs just got on with it and remonstrated with the mum who was giving her kid all the food while filling the gap with 20 cups of three-sugar tea and one meal a day, but instead of endless whinging they sent the lady to a dietician to scare her out of slowly killing herself and helped her to recalibrate her shop so mother and daughter were both eating well.
I can relate: I've been ill enough to be allocated a council flat and when I was getting IB of about £350/month plus a small declared retainer from ESM, I could make it work because I was single with low outgoings, good at both bureaucracy and cooking - I grew up with a single mum who is a ruthless quality food shopper - my 'job' was to get better and I did it well. Not for one second did I ever think I'd be the one having to do this, but I've never begrudged a claimant for any reason; being an immigrant I've of course paid NI and tax from the second I arrived here 22 years ago. I'm back at work developing a long-term project on spec but only doing a feature or teaching work each month so I can focus most on this one important thing. So I'm having to budget on food more than usual, often on less than I got on IB, but I'd probably tear my hair out if I was for real spending less than £20/week to feed myself if it didn't start falling out as a result of malnutrition, anyway.
― aldi young dudes (suzy), Friday, 12 July 2013 09:57 (eleven years ago) link
Ah yes, all those nappy valley RBKC Giraffe World Cafe/Brampton's-subsidising ladies of leisure who whinged about child benefit being cut because it was their "pocket money." No thunderstorms about waste of taxpayers' money there.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:03 (eleven years ago) link
Also, if you are still dependent on "pocket money" in the 21st century, the Revolution still has a long way to go.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:04 (eleven years ago) link
i don't think that's what suzy meant
i was against the means-testing of child benefit because once something stops being a universal benefit it becomes easier to stigmatize, whittle away and then get rid of altogether
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:05 (eleven years ago) link
I didn't say that it was.
No, I'm in agreement - give child benefit to those who need it to feed and clothe their children. What is income tax if not means-tested?
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:09 (eleven years ago) link
But the cost of means testing usually ends up being more than the 'saving' of paying those that 'don't need it'.
Oh, but it's the principle isn't it?
Step one: "I don't claim this benefit"Step two: "Therefore, I can look down on those that do"Step tre: "It really should not be as much as that!"
and so on...
― Mark G, Friday, 12 July 2013 10:14 (eleven years ago) link
I'm against means-testing for the same reason as Tracer and Mark G, who is OTM about the false economy aspect.
― aldi young dudes (suzy), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:16 (eleven years ago) link
Usually down to the cost of having to pay for all those civil servants to do little more than run personal details through a computer rather than someone who can just look at a payslip/bank book and say yes or no. As used to happen.
I don't see what's socialist about giving public money to people who don't need it.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:21 (eleven years ago) link
An egalitarian baseline followed by 'according to need'? No, you've lost me ;-).
― aldi young dudes (suzy), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:22 (eleven years ago) link
Why should money that ought to be directed towards families in genuine need be frittered away in the boutiques of Sloane Street? It's as grotesque a waste of public funds as the BBC.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:29 (eleven years ago) link
It's like arguing that everyone should only pay 10% income tax because if you ask some people to pay more it will stigmatise tax and, why, at such a low rate they might as well whittle it down and do away with it altogether.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:31 (eleven years ago) link
so a benefit is the same as a tax? not heard that one before, marcello.
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:38 (eleven years ago) link
At what point do you stop defining people as "genuinely in need"? At the moment it's £50,000. Could the money going to people earning £40,000 not be better spent on the poorest? How about people earning £30,000? Surely those earning nothing need the money more? Repeat until it's like legal aid and virtually abolished. The "savings" are never passed on to those in need, either way.
― Inte Regina Lund eller nån, mitt namn är (ShariVari), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:40 (eleven years ago) link
No. But they should be, in the same way as there should be peace on Earth and mutual understanding.
Because then you go back into "what about the middle classes then?" and before long you've argued yourself into being a Tory.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:43 (eleven years ago) link
But it's the Tories that seem keen on having this means-tested..
― Mark G, Friday, 12 July 2013 10:46 (eleven years ago) link
Does that alone make it wrong to do so?
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:47 (eleven years ago) link
Do you not think they might have an ulterior motive for wanting to stop people being given things as a basic right of citizenship?
Would you support wealthier people being barred from claiming unemployment benefits if they have savings, or being made to pay for NHS treatment?
― Inte Regina Lund eller nån, mitt namn är (ShariVari), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:51 (eleven years ago) link
It sounds to me like you're very keen on supporting wealthier people.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:53 (eleven years ago) link
It's a couple of quid a week from each taxpayer that isn't getting spent on Trident. All of that money goes straight back into the economy, regardless of whether it's spent in Sloane Street or Green Street. Just as I'd never dream of telling an unemployed person how to spend their benefits, I'd never tell a middle-class mum how to spend hers.
― aldi young dudes (suzy), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:55 (eleven years ago) link
But if it were child benefit, it wouldn't be "her" money. It would be the Government's money. If funds are set aside for a specific purpose and the recipients are using it for another purpose then that is, technically speaking, fraud.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:57 (eleven years ago) link
w/e about wealthier people getting child benefit. Socialism is a bit more than just being all boo to rich people.
― MILLIONAIRE KING OF RAPPERS! (Bananaman Begins), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:58 (eleven years ago) link
Again you seem to be eager to defend rich people.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:59 (eleven years ago) link
i don't doubt this, but i also think it probably doesn't sound/read like this to anyone else reading this thread
― Puff Daddy, whoever the fuck you are. I am dissapoint. (stevie), Friday, 12 July 2013 10:59 (eleven years ago) link